Provocation-based Selling: From No Budget to Signed Deal

There is no such thing as no budget. Every single senior executive has a budget, they just might not have a budget for you. The problem isn’t that there’s no budget, it’s that they don’t want to give it to you. In Marketo’s most recent Revenue Masters webinar with Kathleen Schaub, former VP at Sybase, and Bill Binch, SVP of Sales at Marketo, these two thought leaders discuss the provocation-based selling methodology published in the Harvard Business Review to help you provoke your prospects into buying your product or service.

Here’s a list of reasons the prospect might truthfully say why they don’t have budget:

No one understands your new product.

A financial downturn has cut expenses.

You are much smaller than other competitors.

You are entering a new market.

So what opens the executive’s wallet?

You should provoke the executive into changing his mind by putting a spotlight on an urgent problem he’ll get fired for…Or the problem he might get promoted for solving. The problem is something that he doesn’t like to think about, and maybe doesn’t even know about. You need to find the “bleeding artery” and provide him with a solution that offers substantial, near-term relief.

The Summary of the Provocation Pitch is as follows:

“You have a big, urgent, problem”: Be industry-specific, role-specific and compare him to his competition. Remember the four letter word that starts with an “F”: “Fear”

“You are in trouble”: Be provocative! But remember provocation-based selling is not an invitation to be disrespectful. Let them know that you’ve worked with leading companies in the industry and that you’ve helped them address this painful challenge.

“We know the way forward”: Your company needs to deliver results in the short term, with proven customer stories and killer facts. Let them know that you are a trusted leader.

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